UK: Hack Your Motivation with One Easy Trick

We welcome Jonathan Hoyte, a student of electrical engineering to give our February CARP Talk ‘Hack your Motivation with One Easy Trick’.

Jonathan started his talk with something we all struggle with, procrastination. Four years ago in Malta, Jonathan had a fall out with a member of the team he was with, which caused to feel a lot of guilt. So he decided to do a 5-day fast to rid himself of qualities he wasn’t happy about within himself. He believed this would work! However 1 day into his fast, he realised that the situation was actually a misunderstanding. This led Jonathan to think that there was almost no point in his fast and so he almost gave up. His team leader told him to look deeper at why he was fasting, and he was able to find new motivation.

Jonathan then brought to light another topic – his future. “What kind of dad do I want to be? What kind of husband do I want to be? What kind of employee do I want to be?” As he was reflecting he realised that he wanted to be a better person not for himself, but for his family. When he had finished reflecting, Jonathan decided to cook lunch for his team members, despite the fact that he was still fasting. Jonathan’s act to prepare lunch for his team was completely selfless and he didn’t think about his own hunger. His team was surprised and expressed their gratitude.

Like Jonathan’s point this reminds us of the previous CARP Talk by Hitomi Mingala where she shared that we make goals to improve ourseleves for our families and friends.

Jonathan continued his talk mentioning how the strength of our motivation determines how far we can go “In the end, it is the strength of your motivation that matters.” He also explained the individual and whole purpose in the Principle. “The individual purpose should serve the whole, and the whole purpose should serve the individual.” This means that we should look outwards, caring for everyone else instead of ourselves. If we are struggling with something, we should check our motivation.

Usually when we are struggling it is because we are only looking inwards- selfishly. Changing our perspective makes a big impact.